I recognized the raised male voice instantly. Jonathan was ranting about how Kieran would pay for daring to keep his fiancée away from him. Glancing down at my bare finger, I cringed over how he was going to react when he discovered I wasn’t wearing his ring anymore.
Kieran must not have had the same fear because, as I rounded a corner and they came into view, he pulled the diamond solitaire from his pocket and tossed it at Jonathan. “Thana isn’t yours; she’s mine.”
Jonathan’s reaction was terrifying. I stumbled to a stop when his face turned monstrous—with glowing red eyes, distorted forehead, and mouth spread wide to display fangs. He looked nothing like the man I’d been with only an hour ago, and I suddenly understood what Kieran had been about to tell me before we were interrupted...Jonathan was a nightwalker. I gasped, and both men turned toward me.
Locking his gaze on mine and holding out his hand, Jonathan growled, “Come to me, Thana.”
I felt as though I was being drawn toward him, my feet moving before my brain realized what I was doing. Suddenly, Kieran was somehow at my side, stepping between us and blocking me from Jonathan’s view. “I need you to stay out of the way, baby.”
My legs felt as though they wouldn’t be able to hold me up much longer, so letting Kieran handle Jonathan sounded like a great idea to me. “Okay.”
Kieran pressed my back against the wall behind me. Jerking his chin toward the walnut console table to my left, he whispered, “There’s garlic and holy water in there. While I keep him busy, grab both just in case you need them.”
I gave him a jerky nod, feeling as though I’d fallen into another dimension where protecting myself from an evil vampire who wanted to marry me was normal. Before I could blink, Kieran was across the room to face off against Jonathan. “You’re not taking Thana anywhere.”
“Back off, Bancroft. You have no idea what you’re stepping in the middle of here,” Jonathan spat.
“You’re the one who doesn’t have a fucking clue,” Kieran replied smoothly. The contrast between the two men’s stances was like night and day. Jonathan was practically frothing at the mouth while Kieran looked as though they were having a friendly chat. His posture was relaxed, with his right hand tucked in his pocket and his left foot forward. “Tell me something, Jonathan. When did you get turned? It couldn’t have been very long ago if you’re this unaware of who you’re up against right now.”
Jonathan’s head reared back, his glowing red eyes widening. “You know what I am?”
“Oh, yes. It’s impossible to miss.” Kieran’s nostrils flared. “I smelled the stench of you on my woman the moment I opened my door to her, nightwalker.”
Keeping my eyes on them, I slowly edged my way over to the table Kieran had pointed out. Wrapping my palm around the drawer knob, I flinched when Jonathan hissed, “You’re one of those daywalkers my sire warned me about, aren’t you?”
“He must’ve done a piss-poor job of explaining shit to you.” Kieran shrugged, and his right hand moved deeper inside his pocket. “Not that I’m surprised. Nightwalkers are soulless bastards who don’t give a damn about anything other than their bloodlust. Your sire probably won’t even notice that I’ve sent you straight to hell.”
I yanked the drawer open, and Jonathan’s gaze darted back to me. His mouth spread in a grotesque grin before he taunted, “You called Thana yours, so that must mean she’s your fated consort. The last thing this world needs is more daywalker brats being born. If I go to hell, I’m taking her with me.”
I had no idea what Jonathan meant about me being a consort—Kieran hadn’t mentioned anything about them when he’d told me about vampires—but his threat to take me to hell was freaking me out even more than I already was. I reached inside the drawer for the garlic and holy water, hoping it wouldn’t come down to me needing them.
Kieran whipped a wooden stake out of his pocket—I needed to ask him where it came from because the only hard rod I’d felt while sitting on his lap had definitely been his dick—and leaped toward Jonathan. I stumbled to the side and backed myself against the wall again, wanting to get as far away from their fight as I could while still being able to keep an eye on what was happening. Not that I was able to see much since they moved faster than I was able to track. I felt as though I was watching a fight scene in a movie on fast forward. Limbs blurred as punches and kicks were thrown at lightning speed. I pressed the back of my hand that was holding a bulb of garlic to my mouth as I tried to stop myself from crying out because I didn’t want to distract Kieran.
About a minute later—which felt much longer to me—he drove the stake into Jonathan’s chest. His body burst into flames and then turned to a small pile of ash on the floor.
“Holy crap,” I whispered, stunned by everything I’d just witnessed. Now that the danger had passed, I dropped the garlic and bottle of holy water and rushed forward to throw myself into Kieran’s arms. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
Kieran stroked his hand down my back and pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “There was no need to worry. A newly turned nightwalker is no match for a daywalker as old as me.”
His response raised an important question and reminded me that I had others that needed answering. Leaning back, I asked, “How old are you? What’s a fated consort? And what in the world am I going to tell Jonathan’s parents and my aunt about his disappearance?”
6
Kieran
The adrenaline from the fight was still coursing through me, and
